Gah, I did it again, didn't update in forever...well...here's another chapter!

Oh, and Ig I'll start doing those POV things at the beginning of the chapter...

Short author's note, IK, guess I can't yap every time.

Nya's POV

Jay leads me to the motorcycle P.I.X.A.L. had coated in nano-tech-polymer, in order to protect its engine against the draining capabilities of the Overlord's crystals.

"That way, if they really are the Overlord's crystals, it won't work on us," he explains, grinning as he gets on and straps a helmet on his head. Then, he pats the seat behind him.

I roll my eyes. "Are you sure that's the only reason?" I ask, as I slide on and strap my helmet on.

"I don't remember saying that was the only reason," he replies as he starts the engine and pulls the motorcycle out of the Hangar Bay. As we pass Greenie, hanging from a stalactite, he looks back, shooting a grin at me. "Lloyd's going to have a fit when he sees that."

I smile, whispering, "Just wait!"

He glances back again. Now that we've passed it, he should be able to see it. And it's clear he does by the stifled laughs that are coming from him.

"Eyes on the road," I remind him and he whips back to attention.

"Scratch that, Lloyd's going to have kittens," he says.

I smile, unable to find something else to say, the silence whittling between us. Jay shifts a few times, uncomfortable, as it grows.

We didn't use to be like this.

We used to be able to talk and talk and talk. Even if Jay did the majority of it. But now…it's different. The conversations are rough and grounded. They never wander into some hysterical realm of nonsense or to something completely unrelated. Not like they used to….

What's…is something wrong with us? We used to be fine.

This…can't be growing apart, can it?

I force myself to think about something else.

Silences between people are normal.

That's what I tell myself.

And anyway, I get to spend time with him; if things were going wrong, we wouldn't want to be spending time together.

I can tell him why I hid Greenie. It's Lloyd's comfort hoodie, though he seems to have outgrown it a little. He doesn't seek it out quite as much as he did when he first got it or even later, fresh out of the Tournament of Elements. But he still does, and taking it goes against every big sister feeling I have and am supposed to have, but you know how it goes with siblings. They say or do something, you get mad, you do something back, your anger blocking out instinct.

I can't seem to bring myself to talk about that, though, even if it was a stupid fight with a stupid reason to get mad and steal Greenie. And anyway, by now, it'll feel forced.

So, we drive in silence all the way to Ninjago City, except for the occasional (bad) joke or some comment about another person's horrible driving.

When Jay pulls into a parking lot, I jump off, stretching my legs as he looks around.

"I think the best person to talk to about these crystals is the person who's selling them," I say.

"But don't we need a sample?" Jay asks.

"Well, we can probably get one from the business owner, or as a backup, we can get the information they might have," I point out, beginning some stretches to get myself ready in case I need to run. I have a feeling, especially if we're going to talk to who I think we need to talk to, that we'll have to run or fight or do something strenuous.

"Yeah…that's a good idea, but who's the business owner?"

"I bet you anything Clutch Powers might know. He's bound to have at least one," I say.

"Not him…–" Jay starts.

"I know," I tell him, "But he's probably our best bet, what with all those protective amulets that he has."

"Right…you're probably right. Let's go find him…wait, do you know where he lives?"

I bite my lip, trying to remember. Wasn't it…? No, that's not it.

Then, I finally remember.

When I tell Jay, he nods and we get back on the motorcycle as he directs it to the address I had recited.

Clutch Powers is an extremely odious person. Lazy, cowardly, selfish, and a bit of a jerk. Actually, wait, no. That was a lie. Clutch Powers is a huge jerk.

A huge jerk who happens to be the same, once hard-working explorer. Obviously, that was years ago, because he sure isn't the same guy.

His cowardly tendencies also compel him to make questionable decisions. Like, buy possibly fake amulets for protection against evil spells and curses. If other people were carrying around the crystals to tell evil that it cannot prevail, then he might have some insight into them.

At least…that's what I thought when we arrived at his apartment building.

We had been lucky enough to catch him just as he was leaving for some errands.

Freezing as we approach him, he says, "Haven't you people dragged me into enough adventures?"

"You came along willingly!" I argue.

"Ehhh…beg to differ," Clutch replies.

"That's the only way to put it!" Jay says.

I open my mouth to say something else to add to Jay's words but then force myself to ask, "Do you know anything about those crystals?"

"The ones that have been going around lately? Yeah, I'd know them. I found them, for Pete's sake!"

"You found them?" Jay asks incredulously.

"You're darn right I found them!" Clutch says, "I found them and sold the dig site to some business person because they looked just like…—"

"The Overlord's crystals," I guess.

Clutch nods before continuing, "If I had known they were going to be so popular, I would have kept the dig site."

"Well, do you think you could point us to the owner?" Jay asks, trying to bring things back to why we came here in the first place (I mean, we didn't just come here to talk).

"Can I point to him? He's right behind you," Clutch says, snorting and pointing to the alley behind us.

I'm almost tempted to not turn – this might be a trick, after all – but I do, and find that for once, Clutch might have done the right thing.

Behind us, in the alley that Clutch had pointed out, is a figure, tall and lanky in form. At this distance, I can barely make out their clothes which are dark and fairly normal-looking. In one hand, I see a trash bag, and in the other, a glowing screen.

All in all, the suspicious feeling I'm getting is that Clutch had lied to us, not that that person is the owner of those creepy crystals. But then…if Clutch had been lying to us, he wouldn't still be standing where he had been when we found him three minutes ago, he'd be trying to sneak away.

That adds to the feeling that I can't quite shake, the one where these crystals are a lot more sinister than what we think. Sure, the Overlord is bad news, but for some reason, these crystals don't seem like his work, despite them looking exactly like the ones he had tried to use against Ninjago a few months ago.

"Hey, you!" Jay cries, crossing the street (and jaywalking, my mind randomly and unhelpfully adds, thinking it's funny). "Can we talk?"

If I had thought that the person in the alley was just a normal person before, I don't know. As soon as Jay comes within three yards of him, the person drops the trash bag, spilling garbage all over the ground, and bolts.

"Hey!" Jay shouts, and before either of us can realize it, I cross the street to join him.

Then, we begin chasing the apparent crystal seller.

We run a lot, but I'm starting to get tired.

We've been running for several minutes without any kind of break.

"This guy just keeps on going!" Jay had commented after about five minutes of what felt like full-on sprinting.

At the time, I had agreed. I still do, actually.

Running at full speed for several minutes without slowing down while on a busy, crowded sidewalk? Not exactly easy.

How is this person doing this?

We struggle to keep up without losing him.

Until finally, he begins to slow. At first, it's just a little, but over time, we manage to catch up to him.

Yelping, he cuts through an alley, throwing some trash cans aside. I roll my eyes as I jump over them, grimacing when my feet sink into some trash mush that had spilled out of it. Great, I think, resisting the urge to gag. Behind me, I hear Jay groan as he too falls into it.

Then, out of nowhere, comes the trash can lid, spinning like a frisbee.

"Nya, watch out!" Jay cries.

I try to duck but accidentally flail my arms, hitting it with a loud thud that rings through the alley and forcing it to fall down. Right on my face.

Pain explodes as the heavy things hit me, causing my vision to spot and my head to spin.

Slipping

They're slipping…

Not again! I can't lose them again!

"Nya!"

Slipping

Gone

Not again! I can't stand knowing that the look Jay will give me when he realizes that I forgot him again will be more than a little hurt; I can't stand causing Kai or Lloyd any more pain; I can't stand knowing that Cole and Zane will not only have to deal with their little sister gone but also with their grieving teammates. Not again! I can't do that again!

"Nya!"

I start, jumping to my feet. Jay's standing over me, looking concerned, having completely forgotten the guy who we were chasing.

"Don't let him get away!" I shout as I start running, trying to ignore my already too-fast heart and the memory struggling to resurface.

It's one of the few I wish I could push down, to ignore, to pretend as if it didn't exist. The time that I had forgotten everything that made me, me, and everyone in my life – Kai, Master Wu, P.I.X.A.L., my friends…Jay.

Chasing this guy down is helping me with this. That's all I have to really thank him for, besides the headache.

Finally, he makes a mistake, turning into a dead end.

Stumbling, he trips and lands on his face.

Jay and I make sure we keep him cornered, spreading out, while making sure the distance between us is easily covered.

"OK, OK, OK. I have no idea why you would run unless you're doing something illegal," Jay says, "So now would be a good time to prove otherwise."

The man sighs, running a hand through his hair, forcing his hood down. He's maybe in his twenties or thirties, with black hair slicked back, but still somehow messy. His dark clothing is generic; they don't have any logos or personal markings. He wears the ugly orange of spray tan on him, which clearly does not fit him. I can see him as those pale dudes who spend all day bathing in the blue light of a computer screen. He looks like a mix of a creepy vampire/stalker and someone who must have peaked in their middle school years and was reduced to

"What do you want to know?"

"What are those crystals?" Jay demands in his poor attempt at bad-cop.

"They're just…crystals."

"And why did you buy them?" I look at him. "Why would you buy that dig site off of Clutch?" The guy doesn't seem like a business owner, after all.

"I'm not the one who bought the site! I'm the one who brokered the deal!" the man confesses.

"Then why'd you run? If you aren't doing anything illegal, you shouldn't run. We just wanted to talk to you. Well, the owner," Jay says.

"We can arrange that," a voice, rough and raspy, calls as a figure jumps into the alley from the buildings. Following him is a group of seven figures, all dressed in dark colors and with concealed faces. "We work for 'er. We can take 'ou to 'er."

"I'm getting these vibes that 'taking us to her' is a bad idea," I say, dropping into a fighting stance just as Jay utters his agreement.

"Yeah, now, if you could point us in the right direction, that'd be really helpful," he adds.

"I 'ould much ra'er take 'ou to 'er," the same voice says, stepping forward. The group behind him falls into position.

"Great," I mutter, "Now we have to fight."

Still, it's better doing this than sitting in a dusty Monastery all day.

I dodge as one of the guys throws a fist my way, getting under the arm and twisting it down so I force him over my shoulder and onto the ground, knocking him out instantly. Then, I spin around, just in time to sidestep a kick and a lunge at me. This sends the one lunging at me crashing into the wall and the one kicking at me to lose their balance. They both quickly jump to their feet and begin to circle me, just as one of Jay's opponents comes crashing into one of them.

"Ah! Only one!" Jay cries, as if we're bowling, though technically, he did just go bowling…with bad guys.

Then, I snap back to the fight as I take that chance to quickly get them out of the way (knocking them unconscious, of course), before returning to help Jay with the others. Soon, their group, nine total including the guy we had chased down earlier, is mowed down (OK, relax, they're just knocked out and may or may not have trash bags piled onto them); only one of them is conscious. The same one that we had chased down cowers in the corner of the alley, muttering words and phrases that he wouldn't want us to hear if he didn't want two angry Ninja.

Then, when I start to take a step towards him, he cries, "NO! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Then tell us what the Ninblooey is going on!" Jay replies.

"Nothing you can stop. It's already happening!" the man replies.

My blood runs cold. It…it can't be the Overlord, can it? He's gone! Maybe not forever, but at least for a while. He has to be gone.

He has to be gone.

But then that means that there's another villain out there. Another villain who we don't know. With the Overlord, at least, we'd have an idea of what he wants and he always puts on this grand display of power that makes it easy to tell how he's going to try to get what he wants.

"Wh-what is?" Jay splutters.

The man leans forward, his face coated in sweat, eyes and muscles twitching, the perfect image of a sane man instantly turned ravage, and he whispers, "I would love to see if it makes a mushroom cloud."

NO!

That…that can only be something from an insane man's delusions! That can't be what's happening. No way.

The man instantly stops twitching, his eyes rolling in their sockets as he passes out.

"Wh-what's going on?" Jay asks, scratching his head. "Did you get any of that?"

"Explosions," I mutter, "We gotta warn everybody! We've got to evacuate the city!"

Jay goes pale as he realizes what that would mean. Zane had said they were everywhere…if they explode…

"Right! Let's go!" Jay asks as he starts to sprint back to his motorcycle.

I nod, following, just as Jay's voice rings across the commlinks, informing the others.

I pump the panic I may have into my legs, forcing them to go faster faster faster as I try to get myself calm enough to be a Ninja and actually help the city. No use in being all panicky, that never helps.

Just gotta get ready for this.

Just gotta get ready for the storm coming.

Prepare the city, prepare us…what if we take too long?

How long until the crystals go off?

What if we found out too late?

Welp...I'm excited for Chapters 5 and 6 (heehee, Chapter 6 is when you'll find out what's going on...sort of...to a degree). Digital cookies for whoever gets the closest theory! Until next time, peoples! See ya!